[Sca-cooks] to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus:

Laura C. Minnick lcm at jeffnet.org
Mon Mar 24 19:15:17 PDT 2008


At 07:01 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote:
>Am I wrong in my understanding that, at least in Tudor England, many 
>birds and animals that *ate* fish were also considered 
>*fish*  during Lent and on fish days?  I read it someplace, and 
>perhaps the source was incorrect <shrug>.

Not by any rules that I know of! In fact, Queen Elizabeth was very 
protective of the fishing industries, and opposed attempts to cut the 
number of fasting days. It's all about the pocketbook.

You may be thinking of the elusive 'barnacle goose' and the beaver. 
The barnacle goose shows up in some of the period bestiaries, as an 
alleged bird that grows on trees like fruit- making it a plant and 
therefore ok. Nothing was ever pronounced from Rome on the matter 
though. There was also some contention that the beaver- more 
particularly his tail- was a fish. Again, no word from Rome. Either 
of both of these might have been accepted out in the boonies, but 
generally they were laughed at, and seen as a rather silly excuse to 
break the fast.

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________________
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than 
our abilities."  -Albus Dumbledore

~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/  





More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list